Sometimes a story catches your eye because it is filled with so much irony it can’t be ignored. Everyone knows who Adolph Hitler was. Everyone knows what he did. You’ve no doubt read about his master race and his search for the perfect and pure Aryan. He unleashed such monsters as Joseph Mengele, Auschwitz’s Angel of Death, who performed horrific experiments in his quest for this mythical Master Race.
Now evidence has surfaced that perhaps Hitler was not as Aryan as he had world believe. DNA samples obtained from 39 relatives of Hitler showed some surprising results. A rare chromosome known as Haplogroup E1b1b1 was found among his relatives, and presumably would be found in Hitler’s own DNA if it were available. Why is this important? This particular chromosome is very rare in Western Europe and is typically found in the Berbers of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
Does this mean that Hitler is actually the son of Jews and of Africa? Not necessarily since this is not absolute proof but you have to admit it would be a very delicious irony if this were the case.
The Crime Fiction Writer's Blog 
Pat Brown
August 25, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I’ve heard comments before from various sources that Hitler had Jewish blood. It would indeed be delicious irony, although it would have been great to have been able to confront him with the fact.
I’m quite sure the current Aryans will not like the inference. Not that they’d believe it anyway.
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E. B. Davis
August 25, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I believe in karma, Doug. We already knew he wasn’t much of an Aryan just to look at him. The utilmate irony and justice would be if Hitler reincarnated as a black, Jewish, woman with a handicap. Let’s hope for karmic justice or a holy being with a hell of a sense of humor.
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D.P. Lyle, MD
August 26, 2010 at 7:28 am
Karma is a bitch, isn’t it?
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Carola Dunn
August 26, 2010 at 10:50 am
black Jewish gay woman with a handicap
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Digital Dame
August 25, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Seems to lend some credence to all the stories of his paternal grandmother (Schickelgruber) getting pregnant by her Jewish boss. Plus the fact that he destroyed all birth records and family documents that might have indicated the truth.
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Rose
August 25, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews are found in a variety of haplogroups so E1b1b1 does not necessarily point to that background only to a percentage. This haplogroup populated Greece and southern Italy as well as Morocco and Tunisia. Thus he could also equally be as related to the Sicilian mafia as anything else.
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D.P. Lyle, MD
August 26, 2010 at 7:28 am
Maybe that’s why he and old Benito were buddy buddy—for a while anyway.
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Rose
August 26, 2010 at 7:29 am
Hehehe
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Saundra Crum Akers
August 26, 2010 at 7:29 am
Maybe the hatered he showed for the jews was really self hatred, something he was trying to stamp out in himself.
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Suzanne Arruda
August 26, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Recall the phrase “methinks the lady doth protest too much?” It generally points to one who has the most to hide. How interesting that I gave my main protagonist in my series, some Berber ancestry of which she was proud to acknowledge.
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Marilyn Meredith
August 26, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Having been a child during World War II, we’d always heard that Hitler had Jewish blood.
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Rose
August 26, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Sigh, I hate to get picky with Dr. Lyle’s posting but as a scientist and someone who is trying to sort out her own families genetic geneology, I have to point out the following from the ‘familytreedna’ website:
“All existing studies FALE TO COMPARE modern Jewish populations’ DNA to ancient Judean DNA”
So yeah, it is cool to SPECULATE about Hitler being from a Jewish bloodline, but basing it on a Y DNA of a potential ancestor ONLY and that a Hitler ancestor may have an Eb1b1 haplogroup somewhere in his background that may directly be traced to Hitler, is not conclusive proof. This is a haplogroup that is 20,000 years old (there was an ice age after this which caused major migration and cross breeding). Neanderthals were still walking the earth. Farming was just invented (actually by this haplogroup, which BTW spawned about 90-95% of all the white race).
Note, that I have not been able to find the peer reviewed scientific paper revealing this evidence presented in the ‘press’. So, though it MAY be valid in technique and results, its conclusions about Hitler’s ancestral connections, may be more speculation for the 15 min of fame for speculation, over sound science about genetic geneology.
Remember, what we only know is that Hitler may be part of the Eb1b1 haplogroup. The rest is speculation. It may be right but not on the haplogroup evidence alone.
Now if Lyle’s blog and all comments spurs some creative thoughts about future mysteries, it has done a good thing!
Lyle, sorry to be so picky.
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D.P. Lyle, MD
August 27, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Be as picky as you want. Discussion is what this is all about. Two points: I didn’t suggest in any way that this was proof but quite the opposite. It is speculation–thus the ? in the post title. Also, everything I post is to make writers think and ask questions and do research and write better stories and get those creative juices flowing and—I could go one but I think you get the picture.
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Jim Keane
August 29, 2010 at 4:46 am
I’m a fan of irony, and if any man deserved to be ironed, it’s him.
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Heather
August 31, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Interesting!
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